Setting the Stage is a personal story step for all characters who have joined an order and finished the race specific story arc. It contains the meeting of Destiny's Edge members before your character is meeting your order specific mentor.

Look around. Faster! You see the gates? I run this gate network. They're MY responsibility. One little mistake and it's my ears on the chopping block!

How'd you get stuck with this job?

"Stuck"? This is a plum assignment. Lion's Arch may look nice, but without asuran gates, it's just neat little piles of rocks with an ocean view. Money buys innovation, and we asura invented it.

I'd better let you get back on it, then.

Good luck, then.

I think I'll take my human feet and just keep walking.(for humans)

Maybe I'll come back when you're not so busy, busy, busy.(for non-humans)

Linsay More: Isn't this fountain amazing? I could watch the water play for hours.

It's a memorial fountain. What was it made to honor?

The rebirth of Lion's Arch. After the original city was drowned by the swell of the Sea of Sorrows, it was rebuilt to be even more spectacular than it's namesake. The plaque says "From ruin, we prosper".

Who built it?

Originally there was just the lower pool, build by the human pirates who first settled here after the tides withdrew, using stones salvaged ftom the original Lion's Arch.

Who built the rest?

As each new reace arrived, they added to the fountain. The charr sculpted the lion at the center. The norn crafted the smaller figures on the edge. The asura designed the mechanics, and the sylvari the waterflow.

And now it's finished?

No, it continues to evolve. The tengu, the hylek, the centaurs, the quaggan...every race has, on its arrival here, added something new to create the marvel of cooperation you see now.

I'll let you get back to enjoying the water.

A great story for a great statue. Thank you for your time.

I'll leave you to enjoy your fountain in peace.

Lionguard Atrix: Ah, you're a welcome sight. My captain put me on gangplank duty for insubordination. Not many pass by, so I've had no one to talk to.

What did you do to get gangplank duty?

Pah, he was acting like a condescending dolyak's rump, so I used his engraved wooden foot locker to sharpen my claws on.

Seems to me he had that coming.

That's how I felt. Sometimes I miss being with the Iron Legion back at the Citadel, instead of here with these Lionguard amateurs.

So why'd you leave the Iron Legion in the first place?

Got kicked out by my Legionnaire because she was being a marmox's behind. So I used her bow to floss my fangs and one of her arrows to scratch an itch I couldn't reach. Lion's Arch gave me a place to start over.

Sounds like you may run out of places to start over. Good-bye.

Seems to me you had this coming.

You just got here and already you're taking his side? Sometimes I wish I was back at the Citadel with the Iron Legion, instead of here with these Lionguard amateurs.

So why'd you leave the Iron Legion in the first place?(same as above)

I don't want to distract you from your important duty. Good-bye.

Moofrumaloo: Coooo. Quaggan has dry skin today. Quaggan wishes she could be in water instead of here on dry land.

Why aren't you in the water?

Quaggan has an important job to do telling people about Quaggan's village. Quaggan have nice things for sale, and if you visit quaggans, quaggans will sell you some of them.

If you join someone else's instance and view "Setting the Stage," the game will ask if you wish to accept progress. If you click "accept" the game will place you into whichever Order the instance owner has chosen, which could effectively switch you to an Order you do not want. Only click accept if you wish to progress in the same Order as the instance owner.

This story step was originally part of the first order-specific story steps as its own instance. It was separated post-release development to put the identical meeting from the three starting missions of the different Orders into one instance [1]

Like all other Personal Story instances taking place in Lion's Arch, this story step utilizes the original 1325 AE appearance, not the modern look. There is also a sepia tone added with post-processing. If you want to see the original palette, select Postprocessing: None in the Graphics Options (F11).

The children playing pretend as Destiny's Edge were also relocated from the main ramp leading into the instance to an easily-missable area to the right (northwest of the fountain). Players are no longer guaranteed to encounter their dialogue.